Ducati Team rider Casey Stoner this morning continued
his dominating performance at the ultra-challenging Laguna Seca MotoGP
venue, topping the timesheets in the third practice session aboard his
Desmosedici GP7, almost four tenths ahead of his nearest challenger.
Team-mate Loris Capirossi was 14th quickest, continuing his
session-by-session improvements towards tomorrow's race, round 11 of the
18-round 2007 MotoGP World Championship.

World Championship leader Stoner has led each of the three sessions so
far, his best Saturday morning lap time an impressive 0.968 seconds
inside the existing Laguna lap record. Capirossi meanwhile worked at
improving his race pace, his quickest Saturday morning lap more than half
a second faster than his best Friday time and less than a second off the '06 pole position.

This afternoon's all-important United States Grand Prix qualifying
session commences at 13.50 hours local time.

CASEY STONER, fastest, 1m 22.365s

"We have found a very good setting, and we are using the hardest compound
tyres we can possibly use. I didn't feel quite so comfortable during the
first part of the long run we did this morning, I was pushing the front a
little bit entering the corners, so I came in and we made a change that
really improved the set-up. Even with a lot of laps on the tyres we could
still do some very, very fast times. I think it would have been possible
to go faster again but when I came to passing de Puniet I had to live him
some room. Anyway, we are looking very good for the race. Everything is
working well, the bike and the team, and we have a good set-up at this
point. I'm happy."

LORIS CAPIROSSI, 14th fastest, 1m 23.361s

"Today we've been able to set up the bike a little bit better than
yesterday, so we are all very close on lap times. I tried a few different
things on front set-up and it's looking better. In the end I did 30 laps
with the same front tyre, using a slightly harder rear than I normally
use, and everything seems to be working well, so I'm satisfied. The first
two sections of the track are still better for me, I'm losing some time
in the third split, I know I'm making a little mistake through there, and
we still have to improve the bike for the fourth split. If we can sort
out these two things, we should be pretty close."